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pokemon scarlet and violet

Are Starters Shiny Locked in Pokemon Scarlet & Violet? Answered

Here's what you need to know about the shiny-locked starters in Scarlet and Violet.

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are among the most highly anticipated video game releases of the year, and they’re finally out on the Nintendo Switch. If you’re a shiny hunter, you’re probably planning on resetting the game tons of times to get your very first shiny in the early hours of the game. Here’s what you need to know about the starters being shiny-locked in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet.

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Are Starter Pokemon Shiny Locked in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet?

Unfortunately, yes. The starters in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are indeed shiny-locked, which means that there’s no point in wasting time resetting your game trying to get a shiny. It’s not gonna happen.

This is a trend that started with Sword and Shield, and from the looks of things, it’ll likely continue in future Pokemon games as well. It’s likely that Game Freak didn’t want players to freak out about having to reset their game multiple times on day one just to get a different colored Pokemon so you can just play on and enjoy the experience.

Can You Get Shiny Starters in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet?

That being said, it is still possible to get shiny versions of the starter Pokemon through breeding and egg hatching. Once you unlock breeding later on in the game, you can get eggs for any of the three starters, and hatch them for a chance of getting a shiny.

Of course, your chances of getting a shiny are slim as always. The odds are 1 in 4096, so you can expect to spend a considerable amount of time hatching eggs if you’re planning on going for it.

That’s all you need to know about whether the starters are shiny locked in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. Be sure to search for Twinfinite for more tips and information on the game, including how to run, how to use EXP Share, and how to connect to Pokemon Home.


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Author
Image of Zhiqing Wan
Zhiqing Wan
Zhiqing is the Reviews Editor for Twinfinite, and a History graduate from Singapore. She's been in the games media industry for nine years, trawling through showfloors, conferences, and spending a ridiculous amount of time making in-depth spreadsheets for min-max-y RPGs. When she's not singing the praises of Amazon's Kindle as the greatest technological invention of the past two decades, you can probably find her in a FromSoft rabbit hole.